“Killin’ in Cactus County” has been huge fun for the audiences and for us! We’ve had so many laughs with our fantastic cast and the audiences have loved every minute of this Wild West adventure. You can see some of their feedback in the little video we made, which is on our facebook page, or here. We’re excited to say we have one more show to offer you at St Peter’s Hall, Greenhill on 22 April in aid of the Little Acorns Pre-school. You can book tickets with Lisa, our host, by ringing 07482 599953 to book a place, a place for you and your friends or a whole table! She’ll be delighted to hear from you and Mrs Belle Morris would be right pleased to offer ya a mighty fine and heart warmin’ welcome to her saloon: the Drift Inn of Deadbeat. Belle would also like to draw ya attention to the rules of the Saloon so’s ya’ all can digest ’em proper-like before attendin’. She thanks ‘ee kindly and wishes ya’ all a good day now.

Half-way through our run of ‘Killin’ in Cactus County’ and what wonderful audiences we have had.

Our first show was at Worthgate Scout Hut, in Wincheap, Canterbury, as a fundraiser for the Scouts. We’ve performed here before, and it is a lovely small venue. Everyone seemed to have a good time, even though no-one guessed the killer! She’s just too good at what she does! Some of the younger audience members got into the spirit of the event, and came dressed as cows! Well done to them.

Our second show was at the Chislet Colliery Welfare Club in Hersden – a new venue for us, but hopefully not the last time we’ll perform there. Fund-raising this time was for the Sturry, Fordwich and District / Aire-Sur-Lys Twinning Association, and it was très jolie! Another fun evening, with a different murderer (we never like to make things too easy!) and three teams correctly guessed whodunnit.

Two events left to go – two different endings to be worked out by two more audiences. We are looking forward to seeing the good folk in Deal on Saturday 8th April, and then we’ll be in St Peter’s Greenhill on 22nd April. Deal is sold out, but there are still tickets available for the 22nd. Contact Lisa on 07482 599953

On the edge of the Sonora Desert, in the little-known town of Deadbeat, the sheriff can usually be found propping up the bar in the Drift Inn. But when two strangers come to town looking for him, he’s nowhere to be found!

Come along as a lonesome cowboy/girl or a popular posse, everyone is welcome in Cactus County. Rehearsals are well under way for the first of this year’s murder mysteries and we’re all having huge fun with Karen’s new set of characters and dastardly plot. As audience members you are the detectives and it’s up to you to find out whodunnit and why. Contact the individual hosts for tickets at a venue near you.

Kit and Karen were guests of the Shepherdswell Wednesday Club this afternoon for an hour of what they love best: a good ole natter! This was a natter with a difference however, because they were taking the first of Phoebus Fire’s new series of history presentations out for a spin and came in the guise of two 16th Century gossips.

Two Tudor gossips

The two goodwives, Agnes Marten, and her aunt Kate Meadowes discussed everything from the state of the roads and traffic jams on the way to the market, their dread of a summer of eating peas bread after yet another bad rye harvest, their pride and concerns over the differing fortunes of Agnes’ sons in their first year of apprenticeship, and the growing tensions in the bake house between Kate’s husband and son as the elder man’s sight and strength failed him faster than his pride. What was the best pregnancy test and why on earth did their men decide they needed to go all the way to the Newfoundland banks to fish for cod? The light-hearted presentation saw the 16th century world explained through the eyes of two ordinary women.

Oooh I never knew that!

After the performance Kit opened the session up to questions from the floor to either their historic characters or their modern selves and a good many people came up wanting to know more. The appreciative audience said it was a wonderful way to learn about history and how things, in everyday life, had really not changed that much. One lady caught the performers in the car park as they were leaving and thanked them, saying that she had expected to go to sleep as she’d already been to one meeting that day but they had kept her wide awake throughout the whole performance. You can’t get a better recommendation than that!

Thank you Shepherdswell Wednesday Club for inviting us, it was a pleasure gossiping in your good company.

For those interested in hiring the Two Tudor Gossips they are at home in both town and country settings, whichever is best suited to your venue. Please get in touch here or via our Facebook page. Watch this space for news of gossiping through the ages.

With so much planned for the company in the next twelve months we realised an additional creative director would be really useful. With Jazz’s background in project management and experience in training, along with the acting talent and enthusiasm she has brought to the company this year, she was our ideal choice.

Our first Acting Skills workshop took place on 3rd December, and it was so much fun! The participants ranged in age from teens to sixties, and in experience from semi-professional to complete novice. They all agreed it was a huge success, and great value.

We started the day with some physical warm ups, which quickly morphed (almost without us noticing) into the first of our improvisation exercises.

Throughout the day, we were kept on our toes by Ruth Williams, our fantastic workshop facilitator. Having established some ground rules, including ‘there is no way to be wrong’ she then challenged us (very gently) with activities covering topics such as self-awareness; space awareness; focus and concentration; improvisation with objects; soundscapes; devising scenes from tableaux; devising scenes for story-telling.

Although we had a few random objects to experiment with, and a few hats and costume pieces, we mainly just used our selves – body, voice, and relationships with other participants and the space.

We had a great day filled with learning and laughter, and are hoping that Ruth will come back to Canterbury and work with us again in 2017.

In the meantime, our next workshop is planned for 14th January, and will be an introduction to Meisner. Please watch our page for details.

Here are some of the comments from our participants:

“I had a fantastic time, I’ve learnt so many new tricks and skills and had so much fun, thank you very much.”

“Such a positive experience – a great introduction to the world of acting. A well-structured and most of all “fun” day. Thank you.

“Tremendous fun! Lots of new insights into improvising and devising theatre. I can definitely apply what I’ve learnt today to my current projects.”

Our last performance of Sea Salt & Slaughter was hosted by 2nd Reculver Brownies to a small but almost perfectly (in)formed audience! I say this as 4/5 tables got the answer right! LOL.

Which one of these has a guilty conscience?

Old Mog’s tale

Thanks to Brown Owl, Katie Waters, for all her hard work and for making us feel so welcome. The audience was great fun to play off, lots of jokes and a really warm and friendly bunch of people. Many of them were joining in on the sea shanties which was encouraging and made us sing all the louder!

Now the run is over I can show you pictures of Karen dressed as the ghost of Old Mog who comes back to haunt the guilty suspect. Karen’s idea of no one but the murderer and herself knowing whodunnit until the end of the play each night was a great idea and kept the cast’s reactions to their fellow characters pure throughout. Not even I knew who had been given the piece of parchment with the much sort after “black mark” at the beginning of each performance, denoting the one who’d dunnit. Ingenious! This time it was the lovely Sally who was the guilty party.

Crimson gets a grilling

A great performance by all the cast and I know everyone is sorry to see their characters sail off into the sunset… until next time. It’s been huge fun to direct this fabulous motley crew who have embraced their characters and really worked hard to get the most out of them in the time available. Well done me hearties, I’m proud of you all. Arrrggghhh!

At the end, after the reveal, prize giving and raffle, my wonderful cast presented me with the most beautiful bunch of flowers and a priceless handcrafted card from “Old Mog’s Card Shoppe”! LOL.

The crews of the Plymouth Glory and the Dawn Promise are finding hidden treasure every week as they explore the plot of our new murder mystery Sea Salt and Slaughter, and find new ways to buckle their swash!

The lovely Ryan Brown is getting hugs every week to make up for the fact that his character, the mean and loathsome revenue man Pickwick, is so good he gets boo’d every time his bewigged head pokes round the door of the Drunken Mermaid. Ah, the downside of playing the part so well! Well done Ryan for getting the job at the Shrek Experience in London by the way! Proud of you honey!

We let them loose with the black kohl eyeliner this week and the true pirate blood will out! The mild mannered Richard Ginn is suddenly out-pirating Blackbeard and Jasmine Briscoe, our erstwhile bumbling clown Bozo of Cirque de la Mort, is making everyone stand to attention! “NO ONE says MUSTN’T to me!” Aye aye Cap’n!!

Robyn McMullen, who plays Jamie our cabin boy and Heather Russell-Kay, our saucy Sally the tavern wench are both perfecting their dramatic entrances and shiver me timbers, those two characters have a few mysteries about them that need solving I’ll tell ‘ee!

For the main cast that just leaves our script writer and assistant director for this production, Karen Ince, and the question about her character, Old Mog, is: will she get to the end of her tale of treasure and treachery before she drinks the Mermaid dry?

I thought we were in fine voice on the shanties until our wonderful “pirate choir” the “Saltinies”, as we call them back stage, joined us this week and now we’re bringing the house down! I’m getting addicted! It’s perfectly normal to wander around Waitrose singing “Heave away bullies, you parish rig bums!” isn’t it? Hee hee. Or should I say “Ho Ho”.

This scurvy lot are almost ready to give you an evening to remember! There are still tickets left for Friday 9 and Saturday 17 September so come on and BOOK now! Bring friends and family! It’s going to be a rip-tide ride to murder and mizzen mast mayhem! Don’t be a landlubber, get those tickets!